This week, it was determined that at least 53 Nicaraguan immigrants died of different circumstances in the United States in the first half of 2023. One of those counted by the migration authorities died in United States custody during the month of June.
Among the main causes of death of Nicaraguan migrants in the United States are traffic accidents, heart attacks and suicides. According to the Nicaraguan media, other causes of death are femicides, murders, heat stroke, submersion and causes that have not yet been clarified, according to data from the organization Texas Nicaragua Community (TNC).
Recently, a 42-year-old Nicaraguan migrant who was in US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody died in a Louisiana hospital. According to information from the authorities, the immigrant had been detained since he arrived in the country, last April 2020.
The victim was identified as Ernesto Rocha-Cuadra, 42, while in the custody of the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service after being detained by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents after entering to the United States on April 17 of last year near Andrade, California.
Rocha-Cuadra died at La Salle General Hospital, in the city of Jena, Louisiana, where he was transferred to a detention center in New Orleans, nine days after his arrival in the United States. Doctors reported the preliminary cause of death as cardiac arrest.
Rocha-Cuadrada’s death follows the case of Anadith Tanay Reyes Álvarez, an 8-year-old girl who died of influenza in May, after the medical team at the detention center ignored her parents’ requests to be taken to a hospital due to the deterioration of the minor.
For its part, the Customs and Border Protection Office (CBP) recorded that a total of 217,052 Nicaraguans were detained between January 1 and December 31, 2022 at the southern border of the United States.
With information from EFE
Keep reading:
- They detain 15 immigrants in Arkansas, mostly Mexicans, with criminal records
- What are the main effects on immigrants by Law SB 1718 in Florida (podcast)